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Carter mocks M-V-P! chant

When Chris Bosh stepped to the free throw line early in last night's Raptors-Nets game he was promptly bathed in an M-V-P! chant. And Vince Carter, the ghost of a long-ago boom-turned-bust in these parts, openly mocked the fans' refrain.

When Chris Bosh stepped to the free throw line early in last night's Raptors-Nets game he was promptly bathed in an M-V-P! chant. And Vince Carter, the ghost of a long-ago boom-turned-bust in these parts, openly mocked the fans' refrain.

Carter mouthed something that clearly amounted to an objection. He smiled his silly smile and shook his head. And you had to wonder – since he and his Nets haven't exactly roused the unenthused fans in the New Jersey swamplands this season – if the man formerly known as Air Canada wasn't a little jealous that a throng once under his spell had fallen so completely for another baller.

"I don't think there's any hard feelings," said Bosh of Carter. "(The chant) probably comes as a surprise. It's been a while since he's been here and a lot of things have changed."

Said Carter: "I was just giving (the fans) a hard time."

It's been a while since Carter had the unconditional love of the locals. And though he's headed to his eighth all-star game this weekend, his numbers have flatlined while his fan base has dwindled. Maybe it's because he doesn't dunk like he once did. And maybe it's because it's difficult to get behind a guy who could have been the best player in the league yet happily settles for being one of the 20-some best.

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Carter's old club enters the all-star break on a roll today, with its on-court product at its highest level since Carter left town in 2004, with its TV ratings and ticket sales moving in the right direction.

The new-look squad is getting by on teamwork and intelligence and, yes, Bosh's all-star talents. And unlike Carter, the new guys look as though they're enjoying it.

Elsewhere, of course, the NBA's regular season is being treated like a joke by some of its best teams.

Shaquille O'Neal expended perhaps more energy as the unofficial party host of Miami's Super Bowl XLI than he has spent on a basketball floor all year. Pat Riley, the president and coach of the defending champion Heat, took time out for knee surgery and a hip replacement that, funnily enough, coincided with his disinterested team's slide into sub-.500 ennui.

LeBron James has dedicated the 82-game schedule to self- preservation (or, depending on your outlook, perhaps to getting his second NBA coach fired). In any event he's not the only elite player who appears to be coasting. And can you blame them?

The Eastern playoff seeds, when it all shakes down in April, look like good bets to be ostensibly meaningless numbers.

If the post-season began today the Atlantic Division winner – and the Raptors took a 4 1/2-game lead into the all-star break with last night's 120-109 win – would be the fourth playoff seed. But in a new tweak to the league rules, the fourth seed isn't even guaranteed home-court advantage.

In the West, meanwhile, where the best teams are yet again separated by a sliver, the storyline has barely begun to unfold. Whether the champ turns out to be Dallas or Phoenix or San Antonio – you'll probably have to wait for the dying moment of some thrilling Game 7 to see. So who's revved up about February?

But it's different here, where this regular season, stacked up against the preceding handful, is decidedly irregular, where every win brings another revelation. That's one of the beauties of this young squad. They give up experience, but they give back in enthusiasm. They're rife with unpredictability, but they're a nightly discovery.

Also: Their warts won't start showing until everyone gets a little older. Half Man, Half Amazing didn't become Half Man, Half a Season until the honeymoon was long over.

With Bosh, 22, headed to Las Vegas this morning for his second all-star game; with Bargnani, 21, on the same charter jet for a turn in tomorrow night's rookie-sophomore game, Hogtown basketball hounds should revel in the bliss of what amounts to a rare moment.

The potential seems limitless, the downside isn't much entering the discussion, and every next game is the biggest in recent memory.

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